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Primary
English auction
• also known as anopen ascending price auction.
• Participants bid openly against one another, with each subsequent bid higher than the previous bid.
• The auction ends when no participant is willing to bid further, at which point the highest bidder pays their bid.
• Alternatively, if the seller has set a minimum sale price in advance (the 'reserve' price) and the final bid does not reach that price the item remains unsold.
• Sometimes the auctioneer sets a minimum amount by which the next bid must exceed the current highest bid.
Dutch auction
• also known as an open descending price auction.
• In the traditional Dutch auction the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer's price.
• In addition to cut flower sales in the Netherlands, Dutch auctions have also been used for perishable commodities such as fish and tobacco.
Sealed first-price auction
• also known as a first-price sealed-bid auction (FPSB).
• In this type of auction all bidders simultaneously submit sealed bids so that no bidder knows the bid of any other participant. The highest bidder pays the price they submitted.
• This type of auction is distinct from the English auction, in that bidders can only submit one bid each.
• Commonly used in tendering, particularly for government contracts and auctions for mining leases.
Vickrey auction
• also known as a sealed-bid second-price auction.
• This is identical to the sealed first-price auction except that the winning bidder pays the second highest bid rather than his or her own.
• This is very similar to the proxy bidding system used by eBay, where the winner pays the second highest bid plus a bidding increment (e.g., 10%).
Multi-unit auctions
• sell more than one identical item at the same time, rather than having separate auctions for each.
• This type can be further classified as a uniform price auction or a discriminatory price auction.
Secondary
All-pay auction
• an auction in which all bidders must pay their bids regardless of whether they win.
• The highest bidder wins the item.
• All-pay auctions are primarily of academic interest, and may be used to model lobbying/bribery (bids are political contributions) or competitions such as a running race.
Bidding fee auction
• also known as a penny auction,
• requires that each participant must purchase bids prior to placing them.
• When an auction's time expires, the last bidder wins the item and must pay a final bid price. An example of this type of auction isMadbid, Quibids or Sweepola.
Buyout auction
• an auction with a set price (the 'buyout' price) that any bidder can accept at any time during the auction, thereby immediately ending the auction and winning the item.
• If no bidder chooses to utilize the buyout option before the end of bidding the highest bidder wins and pays their bid.
• Buyout options can be either temporary or permanent. In a temporary-buyout auction the option to buy out the auction is not available after the first bid is placed.
• The buyout price can either remain the same throughout the entire auction, or vary throughout according to rules or simply at the whim of the seller.
Combinatorial auction
• any auction for the simultaneous sale of more than one item where bidders can place bids on an "all-or-nothing" basis on "packages" rather than just individual items.
Generalized second-price auction
Japanese auction
• a variation of the English auction.
• When the bidding starts no new bidders can join, and each bidder must continue to bid each round or drop out. It has similarities to the ante in Poker.
Mystery auction
• a type of auction where bidders bid for boxes or envelopes containing various items, usually on the hope that the items will be humorous, interesting, or valuable.
No-reserve auction (NR),
• also known as an absolute auction,
• is an auction in which the item for sale will be sold regardless of price.
• This contrasts with a reserve auction, where the item for sale may not be sold if the final bid is not high enough to satisfy the seller.
Reserve auction
• an auction where the item for sale may not be sold if the final bid is not high enough to satisfy the seller; that is, the seller reserves the right to accept or reject the highest bid.
• In these cases a set 'reserve' price known to the auctioneer, but not necessarily to the bidders, may have been set, below which the item may not be sold.
• The reserve price may be fixed or discretionary. In the latter case, the decision to accept a bid is deferred to the auctioneer, who may accept a bid that is marginally below it.
• A reserve auction is safer for the seller than a no-reserve auction as they are not required to accept a low bid, but this could result in a lower final price if less interest is generated in the sale.
Reverse auction
• a type of auction in which the roles of the buyer and the seller are reversed, with the primary objective to drive purchase prices downward.
• While ordinary auctions provide suppliers the opportunity to find the best price among interested buyers, reverse auctions give buyers a chance to find the lowest-price supplier.
• During a reverse auction, suppliers may submit multiple offers, usually as a response to competing suppliers’ offers, bidding down the price of a good or service to the lowest price they are willing to receive.
• By revealing the competing bids in real time to every participating supplier, reverse auctions promote “information transparency”. This, coupled with the dynamic bidding process, improves the chances of reaching the fair market value of the item.
Silent auction
• is a variant of the English auction in which bids are written on a sheet of paper.
• At the predetermined end of the auction, the highest listed bidder wins the item.
• This auction is often used in charity events, with many items auctioned simultaneously and "closed" at a common finish time.
Senior auction
• is a variation on the all-pay auction, and has a defined loser in addition to the winner.
• The top two bidders must pay their full final bid amounts, and only the highest wins the auction.
• The intent is to make the high bidders bid above their upper limits. In the final rounds of bidding, when the current losing party has hit their maximum bid, they are encouraged to bid over their maximum (seen as a small loss) to avoid losing their maximum bid with no return (a very large loss).
Top-Up auction
• is a variation on the all-pay auction, primarily used for charity events.
• Bidders must pay the difference between their bid and the next lowest bid, whether they win or not.
• Only the winning bidder does not have to pay the "top-up" fee, but does have to pay for the item.
Walrasian auction or Walrasian tâtonnement
• is an auction in which the auctioneer takes bids from both buyers and sellers in a market of multiple goods.
• The auctioneer progressively either raises or drops the current proposed price depending on the bids of both buyers and sellers, the auction concluding when supply and demand exactly balance.
Auction by the candle.
A type of auction, used in England for selling ships, in which the highest bid laid on the table when a guttering candle expires wins.